Cisco Secure Access vs Palo Alto Prisma Access

Cisco Secure Access and Palo Alto Prisma Access are both sase & zero trust solutions. Cisco Secure Access cisco's unified SASE platform converging Umbrella, Duo, and Meraki into cloud-delivered security, while Palo Alto Prisma Access enterprise SASE platform extending Palo Alto's next-gen firewall to cloud-delivered security. The best choice depends on your organization's size, technical requirements, and budget.

Updated Feb 2026
How we compare:This comparison is based on official documentation, public pricing, community discussions, and aggregated user feedback, not hands-on testing by our team. We organize what real users and practitioners are saying across the web.

The Bottom Line

Choose Cisco Secure Access if cisco Talos provides massive threat intelligence from the world's largest commercial security research team is your priority and large enterprises with existing Cisco networking infrastructure wanting to consolidate security into a unified SASE platform. Choose Palo Alto Prisma Access if seamless policy extension for existing Palo Alto NGFW customers matters most and enterprises already invested in Palo Alto Networks firewalls that want to extend their security policies to a cloud-delivered SASE architecture.

Choose Cisco Secure Access if:

  • You value cisco Talos provides massive threat intelligence from the world's largest commercial security research team
  • You value unified platform for organizations already invested in Cisco networking and security
  • You value duo provides the most established zero trust MFA and access solution in the market
  • You want to avoid most expensive SASE option with complex licensing and add-on costs
  • You want to avoid not truly cloud-native — evolved from on-prem firewall architecture

Choose Palo Alto Prisma Access if:

  • You value seamless policy extension for existing Palo Alto NGFW customers
  • You value zTNA 2.0 provides continuous trust verification beyond initial authentication
  • You value comprehensive SASE stack with integrated SD-WAN (Prisma SD-WAN)
  • You want to avoid platform still maturing — recently converged from separate Umbrella, Duo, and AnyConnect products
  • You want to avoid integration between acquired components can be inconsistent

Feature Comparison

FeatureCisco Secure AccessPalo Alto Prisma Access
PricingCustom enterprise pricing / Per-user bundled subscriptionCustom enterprise pricing / Per-user or per-Mbps models
Pricing ModelPer-user annual subscription with bundled tiersPer-user or bandwidth-based annual subscription
Open SourceNoNo
DeploymentCloudCloud
Best ForLarge enterprises with existing Cisco networking infrastructure wanting to consolidate security into a unified SASE platformEnterprises already invested in Palo Alto Networks firewalls that want to extend their security policies to a cloud-delivered SASE architecture
Umbrella DNS security and SWGSupportedNot available
Duo zero trust access and MFASupportedNot available
Meraki SD-WAN integrationSupportedNot available

Sources

Related

Cisco Secure Access AlternativesPalo Alto Prisma Access AlternativesCisco Secure Access OverviewPalo Alto Prisma Access Overview